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The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror film directed and co-written by Drew Goddard and co-written and produced by Joss Whedon. It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. The film was released on April 13, 2012. PLOT Two technicians in a sophisticated industrial facility—Richard Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford)—are getting ready for an unknown operation, one of several taking place around the world, whilst joking to fellow technician Wendy Lin (Amy Acker). Meanwhile, 5 college students—Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz), and Holden (Jesse Williams)—drive out for a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods, while the technicians keep an eye on the students with hidden cameras. Through the cabin's design, the use of sophisticated environmental controls and the release of mood-altering drugs into the air, the technicians manipulate the environment into one resembling a fairly common horror archetype, a point which is made several times in the film itself. These changes generally reduce the students' intelligence, while enhancing sexual libido and lack of caution. At the cabin, the friends settle in and begin to party while the observing technicians place bets on which horror scenario the students will unwittingly select. Once the students find and enter the basement, they discover a number of artifacts, each of which hints at its own sub-genre of horror, ranging from a sphere which is reminiscent of Lemarchand's box from the Hellraiser series to a scarab-like pendant. Dana reads an incantation from an old diary, belonging to the dead Patience Buckner, which is the trigger for a scenario involving a family of redneck torture zombies which rise from the grave outside, though the students remain unaware of the danger they have released. Curt and Jules go outside at night; pheromones released into the air and faked moonlight push them into having sex. Meanwhile, in the cabin, Marty (who constantly smokes marijuana) becomes paranoid and believes they are being manipulated. A zombie redneck torture family, known as "the Buckners" attack the lovers in the woods and Jules is killed, while Curt manages to return to the cabin to warn the others. Thanks to further pheromone releases, they decide to split up and hide in their rooms. Marty's paranoia is confirmed when he accidentally discovers a surveillance camera in his room, but before he can act, he is attacked through the window by one of the zombies and pulled out, and after a brief struggle, he is dragged off. Holden, Dana, and Curt rejoin and flee in their RV and get as far as a long mountain tunnel, but their escape is thwarted when the technicians detonate charges that create an avalanche blocking the exit of the tunnel. Curt tries to jump a ravine to escape, but crashes into an invisible wall created by the technicians and falls to his death. Curt's death reveals to Dana that something is unusual about the environment, and she becomes convinced that Marty's worries about the environment being controlled were correct. As they try to drive away in the RV, Holden is killed by one of the redneck zombies who was hiding in the back. The RV falls into the lake and Dana barely manages to swim away, only to be attacked by another zombie on the dock. The technicians drink in celebration that they have completed the "ritual," while the screens in the background show Dana fighting for her life against the zombie. The party stops when a phone call from "upstairs" informs them that Marty is still alive, just as he appears and rescues Dana. Marty, having survived his encounter with the zombies, came across a hidden control box near the cabin from which he was able to access an elevator with glass walls. He and Dana take it down to the facility where the technicians are, and as they do so, they pass by a large number of horror genre monsters, each in their own glass cage. As they do, they realize that each monster is related to the various items they discovered in the cabins' basement. Marty and Dana escape from the elevator, but are cornered by a security team. To escape, they release the monsters in all the pods, who start killing everyone in the facility. Hadley is killed by a merman (which he had bet on), Lin is pulled above by tentacles and Sitterson is accidentally stabbed by Dana while escaping into the lower levels of the facility. Further under the facility, Dana and Marty find a large crypt, which Hadley referred to as "The Temple" earlier in the film, with strange tablets and meet the "Director" (Sigourney Weaver). She tells them the reason for the ritual is to appease beings called "Ancient Ones" or "Old Gods" who live beneath the facility and are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual, ritual sacrifice of five young people who comprise certain archetypes—the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). All must die in an archetypical order, until only the Virgin remains, whose death is optional. Should the Ancient Ones awake, the students are told, they will rise and destroy the world. The Director explains rituals around the world have been taking place for the same purpose, but they have all failed. She urges Dana to kill Marty before sunrise to complete the ritual and save all of humanity. When Dana hesitates, a struggle ensues and Marty knocks both the Director and an attacking Patience Buckner off the platform and into the abode of the Ancient Ones below. Marty sits and comforts Dana, who has been injured by a werewolf, while smoking a joint and remarking that it might be better for another species to take humanity's place if this is the price of its continued existence. Morning comes and Marty and Dana hold each other as the gigantic hand of an Ancient One rises up through the earth, destroying the facility and the cabin, signifying the end of the world. CAST Cast *Kristen Connolly as Dana Polk[6][7][8][9] *Chris Hemsworth as Curt Vaughan *Anna Hutchison as Jules Louden *Fran Kranz as Marty Mikalski *Jesse Williams as Holden McCrea *Richard Jenkins as Gary Sitterson *Bradley Whitford as Steve Hadley *Brian White as Daniel Truman *Amy Acker as Wendy Lin[10] *Sigourney Weaver as The Director *Tim de Zarn as Mordecai *Jodelle Ferland as Patience Buckner *Matt Drake as Judah Buckner *Dan Payne as Mathew Buckner *Dan Shea as Father Buckner *Maya Massar as Mother Buckner *Tom Lenk as Ronald the Intern